Herakleides: A Portrait Mummy from Roman Egypt Lorelei H. Corcoran and Marie Svoboda

摘要

It's not often, or frankly it might be safe to say ever, that a scholarly book on ancient Egyptian mummies opens with a quote from the famed Yankee baseball player Yogi Berra, 'You can see a lot just by looking'. So begins the comprehensive and enlightening examination by Lorelei H. Corcoran and Marie Svoboda of a portrait mummy of Herakleides in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Initial investigation of the mummy from the Roman era, a period not often examined by Egyptologists and conservators, raised more questions than answers, thus launching the more comprehensive study that inspired this very readable book. The Herakleides mummy belongs to a rare group known as red-shroud mummies, affording the possibility of studying a concise group as a whole. To this end, objects conservator Marie Svoboda identified nine other mummies that closely fit the characteristics held by Herakleides and proceeded to examine and compare knowledge about this very special group, making a richer study.